About those challenges…
The seven-sentence challenge with the goal of daily production went by way of Sandusky. I don’t know that I’ll get back to it.
The publication challenge on the other hand:
Songs from the Dust
So the poetry collection is published book two for the year. (I’m supposed to be at three, so I’m not quite as far behind as I think, though I still have to wrap up the lagging Kindle and mass market version of Dowse and Bleed. Createspace printed most of the white letters on the back cover in black, with the exception of certain random ones.)
Lithiumlaughter is my poetry ally. She has inspired a lot of my stuff by her own favorites among my poems and those of others.
Currently, the most complex poem I have written to date is “Five Reasons I Love You.” There is a definite stanza scheme, a definite and careful choice about every line break and every stanza break, every bit of punctuation. I wrote in multiple meanings to the whole thing and even though it doesn’t rhyme and doesn’t have a defined metrical scheme, it has a very defined rhythm and plays carefully with the specific concepts being mined. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons it’s among my favorites. It means something different but also true if you read it according to the punctuation, or if you read it according to the line breaks, or if you read it according to the stanza breaks.
It was also written a single beautiful rush. I’m starting to like the epic poems that do that. “History Lesson on the Night Train” started the trend, then along came “Queen of Heaven” and “Five Reasons,” then “The Bringing of Light” and finally “Name You.” There’s something about these poems and what it did to me to write them. I’m really excited about how the collection came together and hope to have it out to the world soon.
Daily Scribbling
You may have noticed I’ve gone to daily tracking and irregular reporting. It works better for me because I’m writing and publishing on three different devices with different limitations and drawbacks.
In new words produced, I noticed that my fiction numbers were best in January, then dropped in February and rose slightly in March. Poetry rose slightly in February, then went crazy in March.
In completed words, I’ve solely produced fanfic and poetry this year (bummer), but steadily more each month. The method works, in other words, but I’m not entirely happy with the lack of original fiction work getting finished. Worked on is great, but finished is necessary. Going to try to correct that despite my Big Bang coming up.
Monthly Reading
January and February went swimmingly. March was a non-starter. I’m moving next month. I spent a lot of money at Costco the other day that I wasn’t intending to and bought some books. We’ll see when I actually have time to read them. :rolls eyes: They come after in_the_blue’s new fic. I don’t think I really read anything this last month at all that counted.
I need to file an extension on my taxes too. :headdesk:
Plans
Get. more. disciplined. Finish something to publication. Finish fiction. Get my taxes taken care of. Consider picking up a book to read now and again, huh?
I always want to put giftfic first, but that doesn’t always work best. I’m considering how best to remedy that. I’m considering what to do when I hit up the collaborative novel again. I’m considering whether to read first because I want to check things off, not just make progress.
That’s the 2014 First Quarter Report.
How have you done for the first 1/4th of the year?
